What happens when the son of high society Boston old money marries the nouveau riche New York daughter of immigrant trades folk? Will there be smooth sailing? Will there be rough waters? Will this union withstand the test of time – or will the two lovers fall victim to the poison of power?

From the moment Cordelia Conner is born in New York in 1890, her seamstress mother vows her daughter’s life will be far better than hers. She dreams that one day, her daughter will become a lady of quality and marry a wealthy man—and she is prepared to dedicate her life to make it happen. Hundreds of miles away, young Kevin Newkirk is growing up in a prominent Boston family, accustomed to a life of prestige. He is keenly aware that he is the last Newkirk male and in need of a suitable wife to provide him with a son to carry on the family name. In love with a woman whose heritage is questionable, Kevin has no idea that Cordelia even exists.

When fate brings Kevin and Cordelia together during a weekend at a summer home, he decides she is the answer to his dilemma. Cordelia sees Kevin as the means to fulfill her mother’s burning passion. Their relationship seems destined to be a match made in heaven.

The first book of The Bridgewater Chronicles, STAIRWAY TO MY HEART introduces us to the Newkirk family, an emblematic turn-of-the-century affluent family and their devoted household staff.

Diving In...

First I should mention that this is a big book! I am not going to go into too much detail with this review. It's one of those books that to talk about it too much would require giving away much of the plot and I really don't like to post any spoilers. I gave this 3 stars on Goodreads. I really hate having to rate books on a 1 to 5 scale, it's just too hard to do. A 3 star rating to me is pretty good, but not the best obviously. I think it was harder for me to rate this book than it has been with others. I have things about it that I liked and things about it that I didn't.

This book is very well edited and really it's very well written. For the most part I liked most of the characters, I think that character development was well done, but it seemed sporadic at times depending on who's point of view you are reading. I really liked the overall story. It makes me grateful that times have changed and that we are no longer a society that places so much importance on the class system. If Kevin and Cordelia had been born 100 years later they would most definitely have had much happier lives, but then there would be no reason for them to have a story!

I normally like 1st person POV, but I think this book needed to be done from a 3rd person POV. Nearly every chapter is done from a different characters POV. It starts with Kevin, then when Cordelia is introduced we get her story from her POV. Several years in then we get Nathan and even Lotte. I do like that Lotte's part of the story is told in letters to her aunt and not in actual story form. Where it gets confusing is that since the first part of the story is mostly about Kevin, he's a really likable character, but when we start to see him as Cordelia sees him he turns into a huge jerk. I don't know if he was like this from the beginning and he's just hiding it or if he changes at some point. It's not really clear. I think that 3rd person narration would have been the best way to tell this story to lend a more authentic and less biased feel to the characters.

I was also really confused about a lot of the things the characters chose to do. There are instances all through the book that I found really warranted deeper explanation. I was confused about the relationship between Kevin and Cordy most of the book and then the whole thing between Nathan and Lotte really needed to be fleshed out a little more. I honestly would have broken this up into 2 books so that some of these things could have been gotten into a little deeper without making the book quite so long. As it is the book spans something like 24 years.

I will be honest and say that while I did enjoy the book, I don't know that I feel particularly inclined to read the next one in the series. If you enjoy Historical Romance this is a book that you will enjoy.

There are no content concerns in this one, no profanity, there is some talk of intimate issues, but no in depth description of the acts. It's mostly done it a behind closed doors way.

*Disclaimer: I was provided with a copy of this book, courtesy of the author, in exchange for my honest review.

1 comment:

Thanks Shelly for this great review. I am pleased to be granted three stars for Stairway To My Heart by an honest reviewer. I too don't like the star method of rating which is why I use something different on my own blog. I'm having fun reading some of your other reviews and will add a few more books to my to-be-read pile!